Communication networks are ubiquitous in our society. The continuing development of new technologies and investment in new infrastructure increases the connectivity and availability of networks that deliver voice, video, and data services to more customers. This new infrastructure includes a variety of network elements that have become increasingly more complex and more dependent on their interaction with other components in the network. As such, communication service providers must coordinate the operation of network elements to provision reliable and effective communication services to their customers. Often, this coordination of network elements is performed by a collection of hardware and software known as a network management system.
Most network management systems include a network manager that manages and coordinates the operation of network elements in a communication network. The network manager allows the service provider to install, monitor, upgrade, and configure network elements to provide the desired communication services. To accomplish these tasks, the network manager accesses an accurate view or status of provisioned equipment in the field, often in the form of a Management Information Base (MIB). Timely access to accurate configuration information stored in the MIB is important to manage network elements.